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Student Newspaper of the University of Southern California Since 1912 | www.dailytrojan.com | VOL. 174, NO. 15 | Tuesday September 13, 2011
InDEX 2 · Quick hits 4 · Opinion 5 · Lifestyle 8 · Classifieds 9 · Crossword 12 · Sports
Reality TV:
Look forward
to the Biggest
Loser, The X
Factor and
many more.
“By trying to encompass all
faiths, the term interfaith
loses any distinction
between people.”
Special group:
Trojans’ emphasis on
special teams has
given them a lift in
wins over Minnesota
and Utah.
sports 12
lifestyle 5
opinion 4
weather
Mostly Sunny
hi 79
lo 60
today tomorrow
Mostly Sunny
hi 78
lo 59
By Jackie Chen
Daily Trojan
The Los Angeles County Metropolitan
Transportation Authority broke ground
Monday at the Santa Monica station for the
start of construction on Phase 2 of the Expo
Line, a mass-transit project that will con-nect
Culver City to Santa Monica.
Most of the track will go along Exposition
Boulevard with two stations near the USC
campus, one at Exposition Boulevard and
USC and one at Jefferson Boulevard and
USC.
Construction began for Phase 2 of the
Expo Line, although the completion of
Phase 1 has been delayed because of bud-getary
problems and issues that arose while
testing the tracks.
Phase 1 of the Expo Line, which has been
under construction since 2006 and will
offer service from Seventh and Figueroa
Streets to Culver City, was scheduled to be-gin
service by November 2011. The open-ing
date has been pushed back, however,
to the end of this year or the beginning of
2012, said Samantha Bricker, chief operat-ing
officer of the Expo Line Construction
Authority.
With many worrying about the comple-tion
of the Expo Line, Bricker that the au-thority
will handle Phase 2 of the construc-tion
differently than Phase 1.
“We actually have a different situation
for Phase 2,” Bricker said. “We now have a
fixed price contract for Phase 2 ... and a dif-ferent
contractor ... we feel very good about
the contractor. They have locked in the
price for construction and design.”
Bricker said Phase 2 would be completed
by 2015. This came as a disappointment to
many students who were looking forward
to riding the Expo Line to Santa Monica
and other popular locations.
“The extension will make [transpor-tation]
much easier for [students],” said
Michelle Kim, a freshman majoring in po-litical
science. “I am pretty confident that
students will use [the Expo Line] to explore
the area and specifically the Santa Monica
area.”
Upperclassmen are also disappointed be-cause
they will most likely not have the op-portunity
to utilize the Expo Line while at-tending
USC.
“I feel that a lot of students are frustrat-ed,”
said Abigail Grabow, a junior major-ing
in occupational therapy and psycholo-gy.
“Our public transportation is a bus and
it takes forever, so no one goes to Santa
Monica often. Having the line open would
make traveling to other places easier.”
The opening of the Expo Line will allow
students to easily travel to Downtown Los
Angeles as well as to Santa Monica.
Students also said they want more in-formation
on the Expo Line so they can be
updated on the completion of construction
and locations the line will service.
LA Metro began releasing test results
for the Expo Line this summer and intends
to inform students about the services the
Expo Line will offer when it opens, Bricker
said.
“We will be informing students and
working with student affairs to help spread
the word,” said David Galaviz, executive di-rector
of local government relations for the
university. “It will be a combination of let-ting
students know that the trains will be
tested and when Metro will open the line so
that there are no false expectations.”
LA Metro breaks ground
on Phase 2 of Expo Line
Construction began on Phase 2 of the
Expo Line, which will connect Culver
City and Santa Monica by 2015.
Transportation
Courtesy of John Hayes
Groundbreaking · Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, Santa Monica Mayor
Richard Bloom and Culver City Mayor Michael O’Leary attended the ceremony Monday.
Interfaith
By Alexandra Tilsley
Daily Trojan
When Tamar Partamian, a junior ma-joring
in architecture, gave a friend a
tour of USC’s campus, the friend turned
to her and asked, “Is this a seminary?”
It’s hard to overlook the presence
of religion on campus. Walking down
University Avenue, students pass the
USC Hillel building and the new $35 mil-lion
USC Caruso Catholic Center, cur-rently
under construction. Crossing onto
Trousdale Parkway, students pass the
United University Church and a quick
turn onto 34th Street brings students by
the University Religious Center.
What’s easy to miss, though, is just
how much is going on inside these build-ings.
With more than 90 student reli-gious
groups, USC has the widest ar-ray
of religious organizations of any
American university, according to Dean
of Religious Life Varun Soni.
That diversity, in part, springs from
the growing number of international
students attending USC; with cultur-al
diversity comes religious diversity.
But the Rev. Jim Burklo, associate dean
for religious life, says the growth in reli-gious
groups on campus also represents
a cultural change.
“Particularly at universities, people
became more comfortable being public
in their personal identities — in every
way,” Burklo said. “People started being
more willing to be public about it and
there was more of an acceptance of dif-ferences
and cultural differences.”
At the weekly meetings of the
Interfaith Council, accepting cultural
differences is the goal, the theme and the
norm. The council, a group of about 25
to 30 students that spans religious tra-ditions
including Sikhism, Hinduism,
Catholicism, Atheism and the newly
coined “transpiritualism,” is focused on
bringing people of different faiths to-gether
to discuss their beliefs and to
learn from each other.
About one-third of the members of
the Interfaith Council identifies itself as
spiritual but not religious, a trend that
has become more common with this gen-eration
of college students. The Office of
Religious Life has tried to orient itself
around this tendency toward spiritual-ity.
“Our office is not really orient-ed
around God, we’re oriented around
meaning,” Soni said.
That means a focus on community
USC provides diverse religious opportunities
USC has more student religious
organizations, over 90, than
any other American university.
| see spirituality, page 3 |
Olivia Garcia | Daily Trojan
Community · (From left) Timothy Conley, the club’s adviser, and Laleh Mehria, Kasra
Behizad and Ailene Huang, of the Baha’i Student Association, discuss the club’s plans.

Student Newspaper of the University of Southern California Since 1912 | www.dailytrojan.com | VOL. 174, NO. 15 | Tuesday September 13, 2011
InDEX 2 · Quick hits 4 · Opinion 5 · Lifestyle 8 · Classifieds 9 · Crossword 12 · Sports
Reality TV:
Look forward
to the Biggest
Loser, The X
Factor and
many more.
“By trying to encompass all
faiths, the term interfaith
loses any distinction
between people.”
Special group:
Trojans’ emphasis on
special teams has
given them a lift in
wins over Minnesota
and Utah.
sports 12
lifestyle 5
opinion 4
weather
Mostly Sunny
hi 79
lo 60
today tomorrow
Mostly Sunny
hi 78
lo 59
By Jackie Chen
Daily Trojan
The Los Angeles County Metropolitan
Transportation Authority broke ground
Monday at the Santa Monica station for the
start of construction on Phase 2 of the Expo
Line, a mass-transit project that will con-nect
Culver City to Santa Monica.
Most of the track will go along Exposition
Boulevard with two stations near the USC
campus, one at Exposition Boulevard and
USC and one at Jefferson Boulevard and
USC.
Construction began for Phase 2 of the
Expo Line, although the completion of
Phase 1 has been delayed because of bud-getary
problems and issues that arose while
testing the tracks.
Phase 1 of the Expo Line, which has been
under construction since 2006 and will
offer service from Seventh and Figueroa
Streets to Culver City, was scheduled to be-gin
service by November 2011. The open-ing
date has been pushed back, however,
to the end of this year or the beginning of
2012, said Samantha Bricker, chief operat-ing
officer of the Expo Line Construction
Authority.
With many worrying about the comple-tion
of the Expo Line, Bricker that the au-thority
will handle Phase 2 of the construc-tion
differently than Phase 1.
“We actually have a different situation
for Phase 2,” Bricker said. “We now have a
fixed price contract for Phase 2 ... and a dif-ferent
contractor ... we feel very good about
the contractor. They have locked in the
price for construction and design.”
Bricker said Phase 2 would be completed
by 2015. This came as a disappointment to
many students who were looking forward
to riding the Expo Line to Santa Monica
and other popular locations.
“The extension will make [transpor-tation]
much easier for [students],” said
Michelle Kim, a freshman majoring in po-litical
science. “I am pretty confident that
students will use [the Expo Line] to explore
the area and specifically the Santa Monica
area.”
Upperclassmen are also disappointed be-cause
they will most likely not have the op-portunity
to utilize the Expo Line while at-tending
USC.
“I feel that a lot of students are frustrat-ed,”
said Abigail Grabow, a junior major-ing
in occupational therapy and psycholo-gy.
“Our public transportation is a bus and
it takes forever, so no one goes to Santa
Monica often. Having the line open would
make traveling to other places easier.”
The opening of the Expo Line will allow
students to easily travel to Downtown Los
Angeles as well as to Santa Monica.
Students also said they want more in-formation
on the Expo Line so they can be
updated on the completion of construction
and locations the line will service.
LA Metro began releasing test results
for the Expo Line this summer and intends
to inform students about the services the
Expo Line will offer when it opens, Bricker
said.
“We will be informing students and
working with student affairs to help spread
the word,” said David Galaviz, executive di-rector
of local government relations for the
university. “It will be a combination of let-ting
students know that the trains will be
tested and when Metro will open the line so
that there are no false expectations.”
LA Metro breaks ground
on Phase 2 of Expo Line
Construction began on Phase 2 of the
Expo Line, which will connect Culver
City and Santa Monica by 2015.
Transportation
Courtesy of John Hayes
Groundbreaking · Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, Santa Monica Mayor
Richard Bloom and Culver City Mayor Michael O’Leary attended the ceremony Monday.
Interfaith
By Alexandra Tilsley
Daily Trojan
When Tamar Partamian, a junior ma-joring
in architecture, gave a friend a
tour of USC’s campus, the friend turned
to her and asked, “Is this a seminary?”
It’s hard to overlook the presence
of religion on campus. Walking down
University Avenue, students pass the
USC Hillel building and the new $35 mil-lion
USC Caruso Catholic Center, cur-rently
under construction. Crossing onto
Trousdale Parkway, students pass the
United University Church and a quick
turn onto 34th Street brings students by
the University Religious Center.
What’s easy to miss, though, is just
how much is going on inside these build-ings.
With more than 90 student reli-gious
groups, USC has the widest ar-ray
of religious organizations of any
American university, according to Dean
of Religious Life Varun Soni.
That diversity, in part, springs from
the growing number of international
students attending USC; with cultur-al
diversity comes religious diversity.
But the Rev. Jim Burklo, associate dean
for religious life, says the growth in reli-gious
groups on campus also represents
a cultural change.
“Particularly at universities, people
became more comfortable being public
in their personal identities — in every
way,” Burklo said. “People started being
more willing to be public about it and
there was more of an acceptance of dif-ferences
and cultural differences.”
At the weekly meetings of the
Interfaith Council, accepting cultural
differences is the goal, the theme and the
norm. The council, a group of about 25
to 30 students that spans religious tra-ditions
including Sikhism, Hinduism,
Catholicism, Atheism and the newly
coined “transpiritualism,” is focused on
bringing people of different faiths to-gether
to discuss their beliefs and to
learn from each other.
About one-third of the members of
the Interfaith Council identifies itself as
spiritual but not religious, a trend that
has become more common with this gen-eration
of college students. The Office of
Religious Life has tried to orient itself
around this tendency toward spiritual-ity.
“Our office is not really orient-ed
around God, we’re oriented around
meaning,” Soni said.
That means a focus on community
USC provides diverse religious opportunities
USC has more student religious
organizations, over 90, than
any other American university.
| see spirituality, page 3 |
Olivia Garcia | Daily Trojan
Community · (From left) Timothy Conley, the club’s adviser, and Laleh Mehria, Kasra
Behizad and Ailene Huang, of the Baha’i Student Association, discuss the club’s plans.